After a study found some NHL enforcers died an average of 10 years younger than their counterparts, Adam Proteau says the NHL must do more to curb fighting.
Once again, a scientific study on the quality of life for NHL enforcers has delivered more results that should change the way fighting players are addressed by the league.
Researchers at Columbia University recently found that NHL players died a decade younger than their peers who were drafted in the same position and who were a similar height and weight and played the same position.
The Columbia University analysis is a stark reminder there’s a huge price to pay for making fighting part of your game. Columbia analyzed 6,039 NHLers who played between 1967 and last spring.
Their findings suggest NHL enforcers died at similar rates as NHL players who matched the controlled group. But there's more.
“However, being an NHL enforcer was associated with dying a mean of 10 years earlier and more frequently of suicide and drug overdose than matched controls,” the study said. “Reemphasis on player safety and improving quality of life after a hockey career should renew discussion to make fighting a game misconduct penalty in the NHL.”
Amen. As always, any new scientific study only provides more ammunition for critics of the league and its tolerance for fighting. The NHL has moved slightly in the right direction over the years, but more movement is needed.
In the current post-season, we’ve seen numerous fights, and only Darnell Nurse was suspended for instigating in the final five minutes of the game. This is happening at the same time as the QMJHL is about to implement a rule “banning”* fighting; the new rule is expected to be put into place after the QMJHL’s board of governors meets in June.
(*As always, we have to focus on the optics of this move and note that nobody can “ban” fighting; fighting is going to happen the way it does in other sports leagues, but the difference now is that it’s not going to be tacitly accepted by the QMJHL.)
The new study found there were notable differences in causes of death between enforcers – identified as 331 fighters who participated in 50 fights or more – and the rest of the players. They attributed two drug overdoses, two neurodegenerative disorder deaths, three suicides and four vehicular crashes to the fighter group, compared to only one car crash death in the age-matched group of non-enforcer NHLers.
The study also found the mean age for fighters who have died was 47.5 years, while the mean age of death was 57.5 years. Players who were more heavily penalized – mainly due to fighting penalties – died at a mean of 45.2 years, as opposed to a mean of 55.2 years for the less-penalized control group.
There is no question anymore that fighting is an anachronism whose days are numbered. The NHL is one of the last professional leagues not to lay down game misconduct penalties for fights. Game misconducts won’t stop any player from dropping the gloves, but it does guarantee the player will pay a price for taking that liberty. That’s exactly what the NHL needs, but we don’t see any initiatives by the league to reduce fighting.
Fighting is no longer a key part of the NHL product, and the league knows it. Regular-season games are played with few-to-no fights, and there are no rushes to the ticket counter to demand a refund for not delivering the expected entertainment. Hockey has always moved in a progressive manner, even in the face of antiquated fighting holdout culture.
Fighting proponents often use the label “soft” for any league that takes steps to reduce the number of fights. But if it means saving the lives of players and keeping them with their families as long as possible, you can call us “soft” all day and all night, just so long as we keep moving in the right direction. Without fighting as a normalized part of the game, the sport will still continue to grow, and the parents of young hockey players will breathe easier about the well-being of their children.
Anyone – ahem, the NHL commissioner – can question the causality suggested by any fighting-in-hockey analysis. What they can’t deny is that no scientific study finds that fighting is a healthy component of the game. It all points in the same direction – less fighting is better for the good of the sport. We’re in a different place now, and that place gives players the opportunity to enjoy the later years of their lives.
Fighting was an encouraged part of the game decades ago. We now know that it takes a massive toll on the players who do engage in fights. Delivering significant head trauma is not the reason people buy tickets for professional hockey games. It’s time the NHL finishes the job of reducing the number of fights and begins seriously punishing players who believe going over the line is part of their job.
It’s not. And with every study that comes out, the hockey community will continue to better recognize how damaging the role of hockey fighters really is.